The present application relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a program, and an information processing system that control display of an image obtained by a microscope in a field of medicine, pathology, biology, materials science, or the like.
In a field of medicine, pathology, or the like, there has been proposed a system that digitizes an image of a cell, a tissue, an organ, or the like of a living body, which is obtained by an optical microscope, to examine the tissue or the like or diagnose a patient by a doctor or a pathologist based on the digitized image.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-37250 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses a method in which an image optically obtained by a microscope is digitized by a video camera with a CCD (Charge Coupled Device), a digital signal is input to a control computer system, and the image is visualized on a monitor. A pathologist performs examination or the like while watching the image displayed on the monitor (see, for example, paragraphs [0027] and [0028] and FIG. 5 of Patent Document 1).
The above-mentioned image of an observation target that is used for examination or the like of the pathologist (hereinafter, referred to as pathological image) has the size of about 40×30 (Kpixels) in many cases. A part of the image having such a huge size is selected and displayed on a monitor screen having the size of about 1,920×1,080 (pixels). Using an input device such as a mouse, the pathologist observes the entire pathological image while moving, enlarging, or contracting a display area displayed on the monitor screen.